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| − | Upon finally arriving at the B2 Sburb session, Karkat, along with Kanaya, is teleported to LOFAF by Jade, who is under control of the Condesce. Jade soon teleports there with Jane, who is also mind-controlled, and requests that he and Kanaya go to LOFAF's core and retrieve the Genesis Frog from Echidna, as said denizen refuses to speak to Jade. When Karkat refuses, he is stabbed through the heart by Jane, upon to Jade's order to demonstrate her ability to {{HS|8228|bring people back to life}}, followed by a {{HS|8231|page noting his deceased state}}. He was then ressurected by Jane and contacted by Meenah, who tells him that a problem is arising. Afterwards, he and Kanaya witness Gamzee beat Terezi near to death, followed by Karkat shouting at Gamzee. Karkat charges Gamzee in an attempt to stop him, but instead is stabbed in the chest twice and pushed into the surrounding lava by Gamzee, where he presumably burns to death. |
+ | Upon finally arriving at the B2 Sburb session, Karkat, along with Kanaya, is teleported to LOFAF by Jade, who is under control of the Condesce. Jade soon teleports there with Jane, who is also mind-controlled, and requests that he and Kanaya go to LOFAF's core and retrieve the Genesis Frog from Echidna, as said denizen refuses to speak to Jade. When Karkat refuses, he is stabbed through the heart by Jane, upon to Jade's order to demonstrate her ability to {{HS|8228|bring people back to life}}, followed by a {{HS|8231|page noting his deceased state}}. He was then ressurected by Jane and contacted by Meenah, who tells him that a problem is arising. Afterwards, he and Kanaya witness Gamzee beat Terezi near to death, followed by Karkat shouting at Gamzee. Karkat charges Gamzee in an attempt to stop him, but instead is stabbed in the chest twice and pushed into the surrounding lava by Gamzee, where he presumably burns to death. However, the whole fandom is in denial about his death and has been saying things like "It's just red kool-aid," or "No, his quest bed's at the bottom of the lava." |
===Alternate selves=== |
===Alternate selves=== |
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Revision as of 16:15, 29 October 2014
Karkat Vantas, also known by his Trollian handle “carcinoGeneticist”, is one of the trolls and is one of the main characters in Homestuck. His associated zodiac sign is Cancer (♋) and he has horns that are rounded instead of pointed (constantly referred to as "nubby horns" or "candy corn.") He types in gray with all caps and perfect syntax. His emotes display these nubby horns as the capital letter B, for example, a frowning face is depicted as ):B.
Karkat comes from "Karkata," the Sanskrit astrological equivalent of Cancer, minus one letter. Additionally, his name may be drawn from "Karkinos," a giant crab who fought Hercules of myth, also the origin of the Cancer astrological sign. Vantas, on the other hand, is a prostate cancer treatment drug.
His Trollian handle is a play on the medical term "carcinogenesis" which is the development of cancer in the body (or carcinogens, cancer-causing substances), and "carcinology," the study of crustaceans. The first part of his handle might also be related to "Karkinos", like his first name.
His online handle could imply either a geneticist studying cancer, or someone who creates cancer genetically. This is proven to be the case later on, as he had genetically bred cancer into Bilious Slick by underestimating the importance of the completion of its genetic sequence, thus ultimately dooming the kids' universe. Later Karkat tries to think of a title more befitting of him considering the apparently doomed life he created via Ectobiology. Ironically, he can't think of the obvious choice present in his trollian handle.
His weapon of choice is a sickle. This is most likely to contrast or even complement John's hammerkind, as the hammer and sickle are the symbols of communism and the Soviet Union (this was later directly referenced
by Dave), or it may resemble a crab's claw. It may also be a reference to sickle cell disease, or anemia, a sickness of the blood caused by a genetic mutation, which is suitable since Karkat himself has a genetic mutation that makes his blood unique.
Karkat is a very crabby troll. In fact, most people under the Cancer sign are said to be moody and crabby like he is.
Karkat was the leader of the Red Team, and leader of the joined teams.
Biography
Karkat was introduced in Act 3 as an incredibly rude individual who trolls Jade, which earns him a place in her Trollslum. He is aware of what the kids do during their adventure via Trollian. He is convinced that Jade will fuck everything up and seems to want a different outcome, asking Jade “IS THERE NOTHING I CAN DO TO CHANGE YOUR MIND?” and later providing information on Sburb and giving advice to John on how he should go through his adventure. It becomes clear that he had hoped to deter Jade from sending a package to John, which would lead to disastrous results for both the kids and the trolls. She ignores his warnings and sends the package that Jack Noir later uses to kill the Black Queen.
In Act 4, Karkat later contacts John, and tells him that they will be friends in the future. He mentions that he is trolling linearly backwards along the kids' timeline, unlike the forward motion of Terezi Pyrope and the random pathways of the other trolls. Later on, he and John have a discussion on movie titles, and it is implied that Karkat's civilization is much older than John's since they ran out of good movie titles over the course of thousands of years. John also reminds Karkat that he wants to talk to Jade and to calm down if he contacts him any earlier in the timeline so as to prevent any time paradoxes from occurring. He also finds out that John is in "cahoots" with Terezi and gets pissed and asks John to send along a nasty message to her. Later, Karkat gives John information on the geography of the Incipisphere and the purpose of Sburb.
When John arrives in the Ectobiology Lab and creates the paradox clones, Karkat explains that every player who plays Sburb will, without exception, be their own clone. Through the actions of one player, all players in that Sburb session will have been created as clones of themselves, with the originals being clones; essentially, the information used to create the clones comes from the clones themselves. Karkat was the trolls' ectobiologist, and created all twelve of them. Apparently, he was quite unsettled by all of this. In addition to creating the twelve current trolls, he created each troll's ancestor. However, he believed them to be “RANDOM EXTRA WIGGLERS SERVING NO PURPOSE”.
Midnight Crew Intermission
At the end of the Intermission, Spades Slick finds a monitor with 12 screens. The one illuminated screen shows Karkat in his respiteblock engaged in Sgrub, standing idly next to his Kernelsprite, a Cruxite dowel, and some sylladex cards. Slick begins to communicate with Karkat in the same way that the exiles had with the kids. His respiteblock at the end of the Intermission does not resemble his respiteblock in Hivebent, probably because it was before the trolls were further conceptualized.
Hivebent
Karkat is even faster to get tired of bullshit than Dave.
Act 5 opens with the beginning of a new adventure, with Karkat in his respiteblock. Karkat was not given a name before his sixth Wriggling Day (his thirteenth birthday), just like John Egbert. He is initially named Bulgereek Nookstain using the inverted Daedric Alphabet, but chops the name entry box in half—much like Dave, Karkat doesn't put up with that bullshit.
Karkat is the leader of the Red Team with Terezi Pyrope as his server player. Sburb has designated him the Knight of Blood, his planet the Land of Pulse and Haze. Karkat wields an alchemised sickle: Homes Smell Ya Later, in keeping with his sicklekind Strife Specibus. Later he's shown using a sickle that appears similar to a regisword. Karkat, during the course of the game, runs across and forms an alliance with Jack Noir to exile the Black Queen. Beforehand, his sharp tongue gets him stabbed by Jack, revealing his candy red blood color and helping him form a bond of sorts with his assailant, both of whom have the same color blood.
Karkat starts distributing memos through Trollian's time-travel memo feature to try to order people around, but these memos end up hopelessly muddled by various interjections from the other trolls (and even Karkat himself in other points of the timeline). He witnesses the last moments of Sollux Captor this way, as he was gruesomely killed by a psychic shockwave emitted from Feferi's Lusus, but thinks he's joking. He becomes very distraught once he sees his friend's lifeless body, and then disgusted as Feferi kisses him.
After many unseen shenanigans over the Sgrub session, Karkat seems to have developed a Matespritship with Terezi, and became at least somewhat respected by the others. He is the one who attempts to claim the "ultimate reward", before being interrupted. Vriska claims that Karkat only awoke on Prospit after "winning" the game in this fashion.
In the unlinked page, past Karkat speculates that he gave Jade's universe cancer, by skipping the last frog required for his genetic sequence to be able to fight the black king in time. Past Karkat apologizes for his hasty mistake, and although it is nothing but a single "sorry" it is one of the few times where Karkat apologizes at all. Amusingly, the position he put the universes in fits with his username carcinoGeneticist (creator of cancer).
John, living in the universe that was supposed to be the trolls' reward, reflects what Karkat's life may have been like had it not been so horrible. This may have been the reason he singled out John as his trolling target in the first place. Karkat believes John to be his Kismesis, and begins trolling him, but as we've already seen he becomes friends with him instead.
Karkat believes Jade to have prototyped Bec intentionally, leading to a series of events that set off the scratch, and extends this blame to John for falling asleep and not preventing it from happening. However, as John was actually put to sleep by Vriska, and Jade was attempting to break her cruxite artifact at the time, only Bec himself was to blame for the prototyping.
After developing plans with Jade, he witnessed Eridan killing Feferi and Kanaya. He attempted to revive Kanaya with a kiss afterwards, which may have contributed to her later vampirism (as he is the Knight of Blood). He was also contacted by Gamzee, who had run out of pies and became sober (and homicidal by extension).
Post-Hivebent
Karkat observing Jade and Jadesprite
Upon arriving in the Veil, Karkat watches John's life unfold linearly, and refrains from trolling him. He becomes angrier at him, in part because he had a role in causing the rift, but also possibly gone crazy. Freaked out by this, he took Sollux (who was KO'd in the fight with Eridan) with him to hide from Gamzee. Soon after he woke up, however, they were separated. At this point he began believing that he was in a doomed timeline, since Kanaya was supposedly dead, yet he had talked to her in the future. Some time later he continued a memo to talk to Jade, explaining to her that he gave their universe "cancer" (which is revealed to be Jack Noir) and is sorry for it. He was then contacted again by future Kanaya.
Karkat about to shoosh pap Gamzee.
Shortly after Vriska's death at Terezi's hands, he also arrives on the roof with a letter written in Gamzee's blood using a combination of Terezi's QU1RK and his own, then is seen embracing Terezi. Afterward, when Gamzee arrives to confront the other four survivors, he successfully shooshpaps Gamzee out of his bloodthirsty rage, becoming his moirail and smiling for the first time seen in-comic; he later mentions to John that for whatever reason he doesn't want to talk about what he did to Gamzee. After this, the five trolls departed for the Green Sun when the path to it became visible from their session; Sollux propelled their meteor there at incredible speed, the strain killing him. Once there, they were met by Dave, Rose, Aradia and the half-dead Sollux.
Karkat is currently travelling to the post-scratch session through the Furthest Ring, with Kanaya, Gamzee, Terezi, Rose and Dave; being that Sollux and Aradia's propulsion is not as powerful as it was previously, the journey will take them three years. 1 year into this journey, he opens a memo, where he has a discussion with a future self about his feelings, in which it is revealed that everyone else on the meteor is aware of his blood colour and that he is uncomfortable travelling through the Furthest Ring that he had previously only seen in dreams. He also admits that he misses all of the dead trolls, and that he is upset at the fact that he and Terezi are no longer on good terms. He expresses jealousy of Dave, and his Future Self berates him for “WANT[ing] HER IN EVERY QUADRANT LIKE A DESPERATE FOOL.” This may be a reference to the fact that his ancestor's relationship with the Disciple supposedly transcended the four quadrants.
Karkat talking to himself from inside the meteor's secret room
One of his future selves from beyond the mysterious countdown appears in a memo here. Afterwards, he confronts Dave about his personal revelations and suggests that they set up a schedule in order to "share" Terezi's affections. Dave's outright refusal prompts a small quarrel between them. Karkat becomes entangled in Dave's long red cape after he bites the cape in anger and repeatedly bonks Dave's head, and Kanaya considers auspiticing the two of them.
Terezi then informs the four (including Rose) through a phonograph that the group is rapidly approaching a dream bubble. There he and Dave see John wake up after being stabbed by Meenah to protect Roxy's dream self. Soon afterwards Aranea and Jake arrive, but Karkat eventually ditches the get-together stating that he has no interest in their ancestors and he only came to meet some of his dead friends.
Karkat's dead tag
Upon finally arriving at the B2 Sburb session, Karkat, along with Kanaya, is teleported to LOFAF by Jade, who is under control of the Condesce. Jade soon teleports there with Jane, who is also mind-controlled, and requests that he and Kanaya go to LOFAF's core and retrieve the Genesis Frog from Echidna, as said denizen refuses to speak to Jade. When Karkat refuses, he is stabbed through the heart by Jane, upon to Jade's order to demonstrate her ability to bring people back to life, followed by a page noting his deceased state. He was then ressurected by Jane and contacted by Meenah, who tells him that a problem is arising. Afterwards, he and Kanaya witness Gamzee beat Terezi near to death, followed by Karkat shouting at Gamzee. Karkat charges Gamzee in an attempt to stop him, but instead is stabbed in the chest twice and pushed into the surrounding lava by Gamzee, where he presumably burns to death. However, the whole fandom is in denial about his death and has been saying things like "It's just red kool-aid," or "No, his quest bed's at the bottom of the lava."
Alternate selves
As the trolls' session had many doomed timelines, Karkat had many alternate selves, only a few of which have been seen.
- In an alternate timeline in which Karkat does not trigger the Mobius Double Reacharound virus, Gamzee sobers up much earlier than he is supposed to and kills all the other trolls in the session save Aradia. He uses the blood of Karkat and the others to scribble the honk HONK part of Doc Scratch's genetic code in Karkat's ~ATH book, which Aradia takes with her back to the alpha timeline.
- In an alternate timeline in which Vriska does depart to challenge Jack Noir, she inadvertently leads him to the trolls' hideout and Karkat is killed along with Terezi by Noir directly, who then destroys the meteor and takes Karkat and Terezi as trophies to show to Vriska. Observing this outcome with her Mind powers and knowing it to be unacceptable, in the alpha timeline, Terezi kills Vriska before she can depart. Since it was only predicted with Seer powers it is unknown if this timeline actually existed or only existed as a potential outcome.
- A dead Karkat wearing Knight of Blood god tier clothing appears in a lengthy dream bubble sequence in [S]Roxy: Sleepwalk
where he is accompanied by a dead Nepeta and also in [S]Caliborn: Enter . It is interesting to note that his god tier form has no wings, unlike those of the other god tier trolls, although it is unknown if this is something that affects certain trolls or if it has something to do with Weird Plot Shit, although Calliope suggested (when talking about her fanart) that god tier trolls can hide their wings inside their cloaks.
Personality and Traits
Karkat is a crab in more ways than one. He constantly insults others in the style of a stereotypical internet troll, supporting his arguments with what seems to be empty logic. Jade has even gone to the point of flipping out at Karkat. In keeping with the crab appleasshole theme of his personality, he rarely smiles. He is also often seen screaming, pounding his fists against his keyboard, or generally raging when talking to anyone. He is not particularly patient when explaining himself, making even his most sound advice appear to be random insults.
One of the only times Karkat smiles
Somewhat similar to Jack Noir, Karkat is ruthlessly ambitious and will grasp at any opportunity for power, but he just doesn't have the subtlety of his troll compatriots and ends with the sharp end of the stick more than once. His real strength is to shepherd his boneheaded troll friends into following a plan, which just gives him another excuse to go off the handle when something does not go according to it. Despite his arrogant and volatile behavior, he proves to be a somewhat effective leader of the twelve trolls. This is acknowledged by some of the trolls and is even stated so by Vriska.
Despite his flippant demeanor, he also seems to care quite deeply for his friends' well being, judging from his tearful reaction to Sollux's apparent death, his seemingly genuine desire to help Eridan and Tavros with their relationship issues with Feferi and Vriska, respectively, and his willingness to revive Kanaya. Towards the end, Karkat seems to show a softer side that hasn't really been shown before. In his final memo, future Karkat leaves a rather emotional story shortly before Kanaya responds to it. At this point he treats her in a friendly and polite manner, something that he's done only with a select few before. He also shows concern that his friendship with Dave will not persist after they meet with the other humans, and later he shows great concern for Terezi when it is discovered she is no longer blind.
Kismesis-Struck Karkat.
Unlike other trolls, Karkat doesn't "wear his blood color on his sleeve," in either the figurative OR literal sense, and is very defensive when asked about it. When he is stabbed by Jack Noir, it turns out his blood is bright red, a nearly unique mutation among trolls, one that he is extremely ashamed of. He and Jack Noir form an alliance when it is revealed that they have the same color of blood, a revelation that shocks Karkat. It is believed that this insecurity is what spurs Karkat to be so crabby all the time.
Karkat uses rich and imaginative language in his particular fashion (e.g. “YOU ARE SUCH AN IGNORAMUS I COULD SHIT MILES OF RAGE SNAKE TO CHOKE YOU TO DEATH”), but not to the extent of a typing quirk.
Karkat is not nearly as bloodthirsty as some of the other trolls (like Vriska or even Kanaya), and has trouble jumping to action when shit hits the whirling device. If things go off plan and he's not nearby, he gets pissed off and starts yelling at the related parties. If he -is- nearby he either tries to devise a working plan or stands there in shock.
Relationships
Despite being possibly the grouchiest troll on the whole planet, Karkat relates well to people, possibly because he is mentally stable, by troll standards, and believes that showing many kinds of pity is the best way to have the capacity to hate. He usually stops insulting and whining whenever the other troll mentions he or she has some kind of significant problem that isn't worth making fun of. He is the go-to guy for several of the trolls with romance issues, like Tavros and Eridan, and even unwittingly advises Vriska, as well as Kanaya. Ironically, Karkat admits that he has problems with relationships, particularly blackrom, and thinks he sets his standards too high. His inclinations towards redrom are strictly private. It is also implied that Karkat has unrequited flushed feelings for Jade.
Karkat
Due to the abilities of Trollian, Karkat is able to commune with his past and future selves. When talking to past Karkat, he's reprimanding himself for his stupidity and reconsidering his actions. When talking to future Karkat, he considers future Karkat to be a jerk because he's always reprimanding him for what he's done in the past/present.
Sollux
Sollux and Karkat constantly insult each other and have immature conversations, but all things said, they're good friends. Karkat has shed tears over Sollux's bloodied dead body no less than twice, and at one point says Sollux is his “BEST FUCKING FRIEND *EVER*”. It was thought that at one point, Karkat was black for Sollux, but those feelings diminished over some time. Though the two constantly bitch at each other, Karkat still considers Sollux one of his closest friends, even if Sollux doesn't himself.
Terezi
Karkat and Terezi embrace.
During Hivebent, Karkat shows elements of a budding Matespritship with Terezi. Although he usually matches her aggressive flirtiness with bravado, he softens up when they get a moment to talk. She is also the first troll to learn Karkat's blood color, which she discovered during a “L1TTL3 MOM3NT” he is too shy to discuss, and agrees to keep it secret until he is ready to reveal it himself. Early in Hivebent, Karkat mentions to Terezi that one of his neighbors has recently been culled, and wonders if she would like to move in, although this is preceded by his usual disdain towards her current living conditions. He seems curious whenever she calls him cute or adorable, and at the end of their conversation he shyly responded to Terezi's <3 with his own, after she signed off.
Unfortunately, Karkat's later actions confuse Terezi to the nature of their relationship, interpreting some of Karkat's behaviour as possible black advances, presumably the reason she describes their relation as complicated. Although they share an embrace after she is forced to kill Vriska to protect the lives of the remaining trolls, their relationship gets increasingly sour after they are joined by Rose and Dave. Karkat is quite jealous of Dave's connection with Terezi, who now spends a lot of time with him. After realising that he had unwittingly been sending mixed signals (of both black and red romance) to Terezi, he asks Dave to share Terezi with him, which is normal (according to troll romance novels) under certain circumstances. Dave refuses to even listen to his explanations.
During A6I3, Karkat runs into a sad Terezi with her dragon hood pulled over her face in a dream bubble. When he asks what is wrong, she claims that she's fine. When she tells him that she feels that she can't compare to her dancestor, Latula, Karkat immediately tells her that all of the dancestors are assholes. After doing so, he tells Terezi that covering herself up was completely unnecessary because she is beautiful and always knows how to have fun and that she's great the way she is. He then tries to say he is not trying to rebuild their former matespritship and leaves, trying not to make Terezi feel even worse. He then refers to her as a friend, saying that he doesn't want his friends to feel bad about themselves. When he discovers she is no longer blind he is willing to listen to her feelings and is very understanding, offering advice and attempts at consolation.
Gamzee
Moirails Forever
He was best friends with Gamzee, once referring to him as the "worst best friend ever."
He and Gamzee became moirails after the rare and highly dangerous 5x SHOWDOWN COMBO. Such good moirails, in fact, that Karkat was able to calm Gamzee down from his homicidal rage with some shooshes and paps and a hug. It is unclear whether this was a spur of the moment decision to act calm and pacifying, or it has something to do with his heritage and the Sufferer's peaceful doctrine suddenly coming to him. It is possible that his title, Knight of Blood, refers to the hate and murder contained in a highblood's blood, which Karkat with his powers can pacify. Upon Sollux's half-death, he turns to Gamzee for consolation. As of A6I5, in a conversation with Dave it is revealed that Gamzee is no longer Karkat's moirail due to Gamzee's preoccupation with Caliborn and relative inattention to their relationship.
Nepeta
Nepeta has a redrom-crush on him according to her Shipping wall, possibly due to their mutual interest in relationships, but Karkat, while aware of these feelings, tries to avoid the subject with her, referring to it as a “VERY UNFORTUNATE, VERY RED AND VERY UNREQUITED SITUATION [HE'S] BEEN TRYING TO TIPTOE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME”. However, he clearly respects her as a person, because in a conversation with Eridan, Karkat acts very defensively about Nepeta, saying “SHE'S A PERSON WITH FEELINGS YOU RAVING DOUCHE!” It is known that their ancestors had a relationship that went beyond the four quadrants, and that doomed timeline ghosts of Karkat and Nepeta were seen in each other's company in the dream bubbles both smiling. Karkat also calls Nepeta's moirail, Equius, "The only bigger asshole than [him]", for not letting Nepeta FLARP with others.
Kanaya
Karkat and Kanaya are on very good terms, as Karkat is far less crabby with her than any other player. They also both worked on making Bilious Slick, but were unable to find the last frog to perfect the genetic sequence of their Genesis Frog before fighting the Black King. Of all the trolls, Karkat seems to respect Kanaya the most, noting that she is the only sane one left to play when recruiting for the red team. After Eridan killed Kanaya, Karkat became very upset and tried reviving her, but failed. He called her one of his “REALLY *GOOD* FRIENDS” when confronting Past Eridan about his future actions, and claimed that she was his "other best friend" when talking to John. Their relationship is changed after Gamzee's mental break: Kanaya considered auspisticizing for him and Karkat, which he rejected in favor of continuing his moirallegiance with him, and Karkat was unnerved by her transformation into a rainbow drinker.
Over the course of the Act 6 intermissions, he and Kanaya have grown apart. In the first it is only Karkat's presence that keeps her from going to kill Gamzee, which she admits almost outright in the second. They do not interact in the third, and by the fifth in Karkat's own words “I USED TO BE PRETTY CLOSE WITH KANAYA, BUT NOW SHE AND ROSE NEVER LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE FOR MORE THAN A FUCKING MINUTE.” Later Karkat blames himself for letting Rose and Kanaya become so codependent.
During the confrontation with a Condesce-controlled Jane, a fed up Kanaya defends a fear-struck Karkat after he was stabbed and returned to life. She is enraged, saying that “I Do Not Understand Why You Needed To Impale My Friend To Demonstrate Your Resurrection Abilities!”. She also points out that “It Was Pointless And Cruel And Does Not Advance My Willingness To Cooperate With You At All!”. Kanaya then makes Karkat shut up and challenges Jane to “DO YOUR HUMAN WORST!” in regards of her 'immunity' as a rainbow drinker against Jane's powers.
Eridan
Karkat seems to have also been good friends with Eridan, despite the latter's stated desire to kill all land dwellers. Such friendship could possibly be fueled by the fact Karkat is very good at giving advice on relationships, which Eridan needs constantly, and Eridan implies they also gossip about the other trolls' relationships, going so far as to say that he and the "assblood" had figured out Kanaya's intentions in her relationship with Vriska. However, their friendship does consist of helping each other emotionally multiple times. After Eridan turns on the trolls and kills Feferi and Kanaya, Karkat claims to have developed a hatred for him and swears to hunt him down and kill him, but never actually tries to accomplish this. While Karkat is ranting at Eridan for his "wand murder", Eridan offers to listen to Karkat's troubles and talk them out, despite being insulted and yelled at multiple times already. Karkat takes this as flirtation, though it was never proved to be hinting at Eridan waxing red for him or not, and he then proceeds to block Eridan from the memo.
Equius and Vriska
He is not fond of Equius or Vriska, calling Equius "the only bigger asshole than [him]" and Vriska "the most vile backstabbing sociopath who ever lived." At the very least, Karkat is later somewhat polite to Equius after mentioning his dead lusus, and even asks him to collaborate in putting down the murderously rampaging trolls, but he still finds him disturbing. Vriska hate-flirts with Karkat on occasion, but is most likely just messing with him. Karkat doesn't seem to hate Vriska, and post-hivebent just wants her to not do something dangerous while he tries to figure things out.
John
Despite his rudeness, he seems to be broadly on the same "team" as the kids, giving advice to John which helps him advance instead of acting as one of Homestuck's villains. At first, Karkat believes John to be his destined Kismesis, but hastily abandons this idea after John turns down his awkward hate-crush confession by stating he is “not a homosexual”, a concept Karkat finds foreign because troll reproduction does not differentiate by sex or gender. The embarrassment of the situation forces him to troll John backwards through time, leading to a strange sort of friendship as both see the other as being less and less informed as they progress through their respective timelines. John describes them as being "reverse anti-mutual friends".
Jade
The most awkward thing in Homestuck.
Jade's initial impression of Karkat is incredibly negative, especially after being caught in the middle of arguments between his past and future selves, but they eventually bond after he apologizes and helps her come to terms with being disgusted by her own past self's personality. In this same conversation, Karkat catches himself thinking of a rather odd image after watching Jade beat the shit out of her dream self in a callback to another beating that ended in sloppy makeouts. Whether it is because of his typing error or the cause of it, this was not the end of Karkat's Freudian slips. Nepeta's reconstructed shipping wall portrays Jade as an auspistice for Karkat's past and future selves. There have also been repeated implications of Future Karkat potentially having "pity" or "red feelings" towards her. Before the scratch, during what Karkat believes “PRETTY MUCH HAS TO BE THE LAST CONVERSATION WE EVER HAVE”, there is something that Karkat's “GUTLESS FUTURE SELF CAN'T EXPRESS AND NEVER GOT AROUND TO SAYING”, which he was about to say himself before Jade suddenly began responding in such a way that he was cut off.
Evidently, Karkat still thinks of Jade after two years without talking to her, as shown when Meenah asked him for his password to a certain door, and he revealed it to be “IF I HATE MYSELF SO MUCH, THEN WHY DON'T I HATEMARRY MYSELF”, a password given to him previously by Jade. He then explains that, in his words, this is “JUST SOMETHING THAT REMINDS ME OF AN OLD FRIEND.”
Dave
:C
He initially did not get along well with Dave, and rarely talked to him. Their only dialog before Act 6 Intermission 1 was a memo when Karkat warned Dave and John about engaging in sloppy interspecies makeouts, though Dave's comments suggest that he had heard before about Karkat going to sleep. Dave later briefly crashed “the very next” memo and mocked Karkat for hypocritically expressing interest in Jade, but Karkat's current and future selves both simply banned him without comment. Upon actually meeting, they get along even worse, partially because they are competing over Terezi. In fact their relationship is so strained Karkat perceives Dave's actions as black advances at one point, stating that he is not interested in having Dave as a Kismesis. By the third part of openbound, the two even seem to interact relatively like Karkat did with Sollux, with Dave stating that many of their conversations are childish and embarassing and that he's glad they are having this one in private. This relates to Sollux and Karkat deleting a conversation they once had because they were so immature during it. However, as of this panel, they have evolved into full-fledged best friends, and all is well.
Rose
He and Rose never spoke at all before meeting in person, upon meeting he treats her with his crabby and angry attitude. He does however seem to accept her as a potential leader in the first intermission. Later he claims that Rose's alcohol problem makes her “FUNNIER AND MORE CHARMING”.
Lusus/Kernelsprite
Karkat's sprite
Karkat's custodian is a towering, bipedal crab monster with a taste for chilled roe cubes. It was killed when Karkat's computer exploded as a result of running Sollux Captor's Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, thereby implementing the curse (if curses are a real thing) that leads to the death of the other trolls' lusii as well. An interesting note is that it died concussively, leaving Karkat's anonymity intact by not bleeding. A similar, although bigger, creature on Jake's island has since been shown to bleed in mutant candy red. It is thus likely that Crabdad and Karkat do indeed share the same blood color, like all other trolls and their respective lusii. Strangely, the sprite's outline does not match Karkat's blood color, unlike the outlines of other lusus/sprites. Instead it is gray, like Karkat's sign and text.
His origin has something to do with the Sufferer's followers, specifically so that Sufferer's second incarnation (Karkat) would have a lusus to raise him.
Karkat later prototyped his dead lusus into his Kernelsprite. Karkat often had to fight his lusus to calm him down but he seemed to love him, since he had a drawing of it pinned to the fridge.
Trivia
- Karkat's text color is defined by the hex code #626262, grey; 62 is the atomic number of samarium, a volatile but durable silvery-grey metal used in various applications including permanent magnets and cancer treatment. The numbers could be a minor reference to 612.
- Karkat's blood color is similar to products containing the artificial food coloring Erythrosine (also known as Red Dye #3 and E127), such as candied cherries. Erythrosine is under suspicion to have carcinogenic properties, and there have been multiple attempts to restrict its use in food.
- Given his position in the zodiac, it is possible that Karkat's blood would be lime were it not for his mutation.
- His text is also lime when he shoosh paps Gamzee.
- Karkat's blood is a mutated light red, showing a connection to Caliborn. His zodiac position alluding to lime blood shows a hidden connection to Calliope. Calliope like this blood color are both hidden.
- Karkat's prudity and dislike of buckets may be a retroactive reference to the concept of the "Crab in the bucket", which identifies an individual in a group that is considered a constant downer.
- "Cancer" can be defined as "irregular" and "mutated," most likely the cause of Karkat's mutation.
- According to the Homestuck 2012 Calendar, his Wriggling Day would be June 12, in Earth years. This, however, does not take into account the year-perigee conversion.
- This is obviously in mirror of John, who was born on 4/13. Karkat was born on 6/12, the troll equivalent.
- His typing color is directly in between that of Calliope (#929292, light-grey) and Caliborn (#323232, dark-grey) when they both originally used grey text.
- Psychologically, Karkat is caring like Calliope, yet wrathful like Caliborn.
- Karkat likes Dane Cook.
- Dutch for Cancer is Kanker and so most Dutch use "KK" as a shorthand for it, which might be a reference to why Sollux often calls him by “kk”.
- Karkat was named by beesmygod and Vantas was named by hr.morgaes
- Karkinos, a giant crab who in myth fought Hercules, might also reference his relationship with Gamzee since in the myth, Hercules was known to enter great fits of rage and ended up killing his family, very much like Gamzee does when he enters his rage, apparently gaining incredible strength not unlike Hercules and killing his friends.
- He and Kankri are the only trolls whose god tiers have yet to be shown with wings. Whether the wings are very small, nonexistant, or simply hidden remains to be seen.
- Karkat, along with Terezi, are one of the few post scratch trolls that inherited both their class and aspect from the same two pre-scratch trolls. The only other examples are Eridan and Gamzee. As the Knight of Blood, he inherited the Knight class from Latula and the Blood aspect from his dancestor, while Terezi inherited the exact opposite. This reflects both Kankri and Latula's unresolved feelings for each other, as well as Redglare being a secret follower of the Signless. This also reflects their own romantic tension towards each other.
- The tropics of the equator are Cancer and Capricorn, the signs of Karkat and his ex-moirail, Gamzee, respectively.
- Karkat is depicted as the central figure in the "King of Swords" card in the tarot card dec, along with the rest of the red team. His character has some parallels with the interpretation of the King of Swords as a person, as he serves as a problem solver, judge, and advisor for others. He can also be seen on the "Five of Wands" card with most of the pre act 6 main cast.
- The inverted meaning may be refrenced in his dancestor Kankri, who refuses to listen to arguments and acts superior or cruel to others.
